Contents

3 Vector spaces 3
3.1 Vector space structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2 Linear combination of vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.3 Subspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.4 Linear independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.5 Spanning Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.6 Spanned (Generated) Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.7 Basis and Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.8 Coordinates of a vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.9 Sum and Direct sum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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Chapter

Vector spaces
3.1 Vector space structure

Throughout this lecture, K will denote the eld R or C.

Denition 3.1. A vector space over a eld K or K− vector space is a set E together with a
function E × E → E called addition (+), denoted (u, v) → u + v , and a function K × E → E called
scalar multiplication (·) and denoted (α, u) → α · u, which satisfy the following properties:

1. ∀u, v ∈ E , u + v = v + u ( Commutativity).
2. ∀u, v, w ∈ E, u + (v + w) = (u + v) + w (Associativity addition)
3. ∃0E ∈ E , u + 0E = u (Additive identity).
4. ∀u ∈ E ∃(−u) ∈ E , u + (−u) = 0E (additive inverse).
5. ∀u ∈ E , 1K · u = u (Scalar multiplication identity).
6. ∀u, ∈ E, ∀λ, µ ∈ K, λ · (µ · u) = (λµ) · u ( Associativity of scalar multiplication:)
7. ∀u, v ∈ E, ∀λ ∈ K, λ · (u + v) = λ · u + λ · v (Distributivity of vector sums).
8. ∀u, ∈ E, ∀λ, µ ∈ K, (λ + µ) · u = λ · u + µ · u (Distributivity of scalar sums).
The elements of vector space (E, +, ·) are called vectors and those of K are called scalars.

3.2 Linear combination of vectors

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Denition 3.2. Let E be a K-vector space and v ∈ V . We say that v is a linear combination of
v1 , v2 , ..., vn ∈ E if there exist λ1 , λ2 , ..., λn ∈ K such that

v = λ1 v1 + λ2 v2 + · · · + λn vn

3.3 Subspaces

Denition 3.3. A subset F of a K−vector space E is called a subspace of E if F is itself a

Theorem 3.1. Let E be a vector space over a eld K. A subset F of E is a subspace if and only
if the following three conditions hold for the operations dened in E :
1. 0 ∈ F .
2. ∀u, v ∈ F , u + v ∈ F .
3. ∀u ∈ F, ∀λ ∈ K, λ · u ∈ F .

Denition 3.4. The intersection of any set of subspaces of a vector space E is a subspace of E .

Remark. The union of two subspaces of a vectors space E is not in general a subspace of E.

3.4 Linear independence

Denition 3.5. A set of vectors {v1 , v2 , ..., vn } ⊂ E is linearly dependent if there exist scalars
λ1 , λ2 , ..., λn , not all zero, such that

λ1 v1 + λ2 v2 + · · · + λn vn = 0.

Denition 3.6. A set of vectors {v1 , v2 , ..., vn } ⊂ E is linearly independent if is not linearly
dependent

∀v1 , v2 , ..., vn ∈ K, λ1 v1 + λ2 v2 + · · · + λn vn = 0 =⇒ λ1 = λ2 = ... = λn = 0

Theorem 3.2. Any subset containing the null vector is linearly dependent.
Any subset containing linearly dependent subset is itself linearly dependent.

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 3.5 Spanning Sets

Denition 3.7. The set of all linear combinations of the vectors v1 , . . . , vn ∈ E is denoted by
Span{v1 , . . . , vn }, that is,

Span{v1 , . . . , vn } = {λ1 v1 + · · · + λn vn | λ1 , . . . , λn ∈ K}.

is called the linear span (or simply span) of vectors v1 , . . . , vn .

Theorem 3.3. Let v1 , . . . , vn be vectors of the space vector E . Then Span{v1 , . . . , vn } is subspace
of E.

Denition 3.8. Span{v1 , . . . , vn } is called the subspace spanned (or generated) by v1 , . . . , vn :

Remark. Span {v1 , . . . , vn } is the smallest vector space containing vectors v1 , . . . , vn .

3.6 Spanned (Generated) Space

Denition 3.9. Let v1 , . . . , vn We say that v1 , . . . , vn spans ( or generates) E, if and only if

3.7 Basis and Dimension

Denition 3.10. Let E be a vector space over a eld K.

ˆ Span(B) = V .

The set S = {(1, 0, 0), (0, 1, 0), (0, 0, 1)} forms a basis for the vector space R3 , called the standard
basis.
In general, the set S = {(1, 0, . . . , 0), (0, 1, 0, . . . , 0), . . . , (0, 0, . . . , 1)} forms the standard basis for
the vector space Rn .
Example 5.2 The set of vectors S = {1, x, x , . . . , x } forms the standard basis for the vector
2 n

space Pn (x).

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 Example 5.3 The vectors
       
1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
S= , , ,
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

form the standard basis for the vector space M2×2 .

Denition 3.11. If a vector space E has a basis with n vectors, then the number n is called the
dimension of E and is denoted by dim E .

Example 3.1.

dim(Rn ) = n
dim(Pn (x)) = n + 1
dim(Mm×n (R)) = m × n

Let E be a K-vector space of dimension n ≥ 1. The following statements are equivalent:

2.
1. B is linearly independent and has cardinality n

3. B is a spanning set and has cardinality n

Consequence:
Let E be a vector space of dimension n. Then Any spanning set of E has at least n elements.
Any linearly independent set of E has at most n elements.
Any linearly independent set of n vectors is a basis.
Any spanning set of E of n vectors is a basis.

Theorem 3.4. Let E be a nite dimensional vector space and F a vector subspace of E . We
have
1. dim F ≤ dim F .
2. If dim F = dim E , then F = E .

3.8 Coordinates of a vector

Let B = {v1 , . . . , vn } be a basis of a vector space E and let v ∈ E . The unique numbers λ1 , . . . , λn
such that v = λ1 v1 + · · · + λn vn are called the coordinates of v in (with respect to) the basis
{v1 , . . . , vn }. We use the notation  
λ1
 λ2 
[v]B =  .. 
 
.
λn B
to denote the coordinate vector of v in the basis S .

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 3.9 Sum and Direct sum

Let F1 and F2 be subspaces of a space vector E . The sum of F1 and F2 denoted by F1 + F2 is the
set
F1 + F2 = {v1 + v2 , v1 ∈ F1 , v2 ∈ F2 }
The sum F1 + F2 is also a subspace of V.

Denition 3.12. A sum of two subspaces F1 + F2 is said to be a direct sum if F1 ∩ F2 = {0}.

Denition 3.13. Let F1 and F2 be subspaces of a space vector E . F1 and F2 are said to be
complementary or supplementary if F1 ⊕ F2 = E . i.e
F1 + F2 = E .
F1 ∩ F2 = {0}.